Tea Party Polls 2014: Michigan, Kansas, Tennessee Candidates In Primary Races

With primaries coming up next week, a fresh group of Tea Party candidates hopes to repeat David Brat’s stunning upset of Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Virginia earlier this year.

Neither the polls nor the pundits predicted Brat's GOP primary win. But here, for what it's worth, is where things seem to stand on upcoming Tea Party challenges in Kansas, Tennessee and Michigan.

Kansas, Aug. 5: Tea Party challenger Milton Wolf

Dr. Milton Wolf describes himself as “a doctor, not a politician.” He’s a radiologist and is staunchly opposed to Obamacare, liberals and “Washington” Republicans, especially his opponent in next week’s primary, 17-year Senate vet Pat Roberts.

Wolf grabbed headlines outside of Kansas mostly for the questionable photos and comments he posted of injured patients on Facebook, for which he’s now under investigation by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts. He’s also President Barack Obama’s second cousin once removed, but says he and Obama couldn’t be further apart politically. He says he’s ready to start “the mother of all family feuds to save America” from Obama.

The Tea Party Express has endorsed him. The Broadside Books series "Voice Of The Tea Party" published his book "First, Do No Harm: The President's Cousin Explains Why His Hippocratic Oath Requires Him to Oppose ObamaCare" back in 2011.

Roberts leads Wolf by 20 percentage points in a poll of likely voters taken last week. Roberts has a reputation as a strong defender of the state in Washington -- but on the other hand, Cantor also seemed to have a strong base of support in his home state. Roberts served in the House from 1981 until 1997 before becoming a senator.

Tennessee, Aug. 7: Tennessee state Rep. Joe Carr

Joe Carr is the Tea Party’s most viable candidate in Tennessee where 14 Republican and third-party challengers announced their candidacy in 2014. Carr himself is a registered Republican and has served in the Tennessee House of Representatives since 2009. He originally ran for the U.S. House but decided to go for incumbent Republican Lamar Alexander’s spot in the Senate instead.

He’s a member of the National Rifle Association, “strongly pro-life” and says he “identifies deeply with President Ronald Reagan’s assessment that too often ‘government is not the solution to the problem. Government is the problem.’”

He’s endorsed by the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, Sarah Palin and a handful of conservative talk show hosts and pundits.

In May, Alexander led Carr by 44-20 in a Breitbart poll. Earlier this month, an Alexander campaign-prepared poll said Alexander led Carr by 53 percent to 21 percent. There haven’t been any recent independent polls. Hear why Joe Carr thinks he should take Alexander’s seat.

Meanwhile, the Tea Party is active on the state level in Michigan, where Tea Partiers hope to unseat Lansing politicians in both the state House and Senate during primaries Aug. 5.